Most economic historians have had an opinion that there was a sharp division between the agricultural and the industrial interests concerning the Gilbert & Speenhamland System. Some of them said that the System protected landlords' interest, and others paying attention to the heavy poor-rate paid by the landlord held an opinion that the System protected industrialists' interest at the sacrifice of the agricultural interests. The author, however, rejects such an opinion and puts stress on other aspects to the problem. One point which the author empihaszed was the difference between those who promoted the industrial and the agricultural revolutions and those who disappeared during the process of the revolutions. The former were factory-owners, farmers and landlords, the latter being the poor manufacturers who put materials on the domestic workes, handloom weavers, framework knitters and the agricultural poor. The other point was the function of the System to maintain peace, which was sometimes overlooked by historians. Though landlords were burdened heaviest with the poor-rate, they did not dare to ask to repeal or to amend the old Poor Laws until 1834. The reason was that it was necessary to keep peace in order to perform the agricultural revolution. The small landholders were becoming the laboring poor as a result of the parliamentary enclosure, and lived upon the parish relief. If there were not the Poor Laws, the landlord would have to come across labouers' serious attack. It mattered least to the factory-masters how the Poor Laws worked, for the factory-labouers had the relatively good wage compared with such domestic workers as handloom weavers. They did not rely upon the parish relief cven during industrial depression, for they had their own union for self-help, that is, the friendly societies. The factory-masters, therefore, were not so much helped by the Poor Laws as against it. The reason was that the parish relief, as it were, encouraged the poor manufacturers to reduce domestic workers' wage through eking out it with allowance. The poor manufacturers' constant practice was to attempt to realize a profit by underselling their more respectable competitors. that is, the factory-masters, The factor-masters, therefore, asked the Parliament to fix minimum wage in Concert with the domestic workers. The Gilbert-Speenhamland System appeared to be very helpful to the poor manufacturers as well as to the domestic workers who eked out their wage with allowance. But in reality it was not so helpful. It only postponed their disappearance. It was, in the end, useful both to landlords and to factory-masters. They could accomplish the revolutions due to the existence of the system.

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The history of the Dutch Republic was closely connected with the evolution of cloth industries. The Dutch Republic emerged "like a comet" as the cloth industry began to develop and declined with its fall. When the northern part of the Netherland won independence from Spain at the end of the 16th century, the cloth industry consisted mainly of the New Drapery introduced by the refugees from Flanders and Brabant. The main products were says, bays, arras, fustian and so on, and their export markets were the South Europe, the Mediterranean and the Levant. In England, too, in the first half of the 17th century, the New Drapery began to develop at the cost of the Old Drapery, and drove the Dutch products off the overseas markets. But the Dutch Republic did not throw in her lot with the New Drapery. In the Dutch Republic, on the contrary, in the second half of the 17th century the Old Drapery developed increasingly, taking the place of the stagnant Old Drapery in England. And it became the basis of the economic development of the Dutch Republic. In the course of the 18th century, however, the Dutch Old Drapery was replaced by the rural cloth industries of the surrounding areas.

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(continued from Vol. 36, N.3) The third section of this paper discusses the method used by the Catasto officials. According to the provision of 1427, every citizen was obliged to make a declaration of his possessions and incomes. Every income was capitalized at the rate of 7%, permitting deductions for debts, house rent and family maintenance. The tax was levied on all the interest-bearing capital. It was a full application to the field of administration of the technics elaborated by Italian merchants to manage their companies. The last section discusses the relationship between the establishment of the Catasto and the centralization of political power of the city-state. Florentines welcomed the equitable principles of the Catasto and the olgarchy leaders regained the prestige. The Catasto was the first register of all the landholding in the Florentine territory. Although the Government could not control the economic activity in the city-state in an effective fashion, the Catasto made some contribrition to change the commune into the territorial state.

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